New NARS Only You Eye and Cheek Palette!

What a brilliant start to the weekend! New package from Mecca Cosmetica and it's my new NARS palette :-D With something else that was super pricey that I'll review later :-) So I haven't known about NARS for all that long, and it's taken me a while to hunt down both previous limited edition eye shadow palettes (although I still think you can get the Day & Night palette on the NARS website if you are in the UK/US/EU) but NARS palettes make me extremely happy. I think it's because the colours are so darn expensive to buy individually. Palettes are definitely for the win. There's something different about this palette though, it's in a zipped pouch:

You can't remove it from the pouch and the zipper has the NARS logo engraved on it. Colours of the palette are still a sticker on the back of the pouch. What I love is that this palette takes beautiful colours from single and eye shadow duos - the colours are Alahambra (golden shimmery champagne), Mekong (dark shimmery brown), Eurydice (shimmery purple plum) and Pandora (matte black).

I especially love Alahambra (will this replace my MAC grand entrance?) which can also be purchased as an eye shadow duo. Swatches are below:

All up a great palette. Not only do you have a gorgeous quad of eye shadow colours, you have a blush and highlighter as well. Great for travel! And given that NARS orgasm is the only blush I took on my last holiday, this seems like the perfect travel companion. Hungry heart didn't show up well on my arm, but it was there and it was pretty :-)

OPI Wing It! Summer Flutter Collection continued :-)

Loving this OPI summer flutter collection. Flower to Flower was a gorgeous pink with a subtle shimmer, Catch Me In Your Net was bold but oh so beautiful. Here I present Wing It! A sheer but very pretty pinky red with pink glitter that reflects purply blue = gorgeous.



First thoughts were wow it's so sheer! I did 3 coats which applied beautifully.



It reflects red or pink depending on what light you're in. I received a few compliments today though so it was definitely an eye catcher :-)



Overall I really like this polish. It's pink but still unique. Can't wait to try Flit A Bit next week! Stay tuned for more OPI goodness ;-)

MAC Originality nail polish and small haul!

I have been meaning to get this LE nail polish for ages but I kept forgetting. MAC originality came out with the Pret-a-papier collection. It is a frost and it looks very pretty in the bottle:



It's a bronzy gold colour and with two coats, very easy to apply.



Flash shot above. Here's a foggy Canberra morning shot!



I don't know why but I feel disappointed with this colour. It looks pretty in the bottle but perhaps it is better suited to a darker skin tone. It looks washed out on my pale hands :-P

Onto the haul. I don't know why I get suckered into new lip gloss. I hate sticky lipgloss and quite frankly glitter on the lips doesn't really appeal but I just had to try :-) I got 2 of the new superglass (well new in Australia) lip glosses with my MAC originality nail polish. And a MAC to the beach eye shadow because I wanted the pretty sea shell green packaging. Such a sucker for new and pretty :-|



Oh my gosh these are glittery. I swatched on my hands and it took a shower, several hand washes to 1) get the stickyness off and 2) get the glitter off. I thought I had showered in a lush glitter bath ballistic I had that much glitter left on my hand.



There is really a lot of big glitter in that swatch. Big. Chunky. I'm interested to see how these go over some of my lippies. I think these may be worth it if you wanted to try the big bold colours in the collection. These two shades? Nothing special. I think I prefer the lip gelee's that came in out the lillyland collection. Those were super glittery but not so tacky.

UPDATE: Oh my gosh. If you thought getting glitter off your nails was hard, this Originality polish is even worse! I'm fairly certain I have molten rock glued to my nails :-|

Chanel Particuliere vs Essie Mink Muffs

I was trying to call my bank last night and was on hold for 20 mins. Plenty of time to do this little experiment and compare Chanel's Particuliere to Essie Mink Muffs :-) I don't think it's a dupe of Chanel but it's very similar. At least from a distance :-P And in the bottle! Here we have flash and daylight:



Flash you can see an obvious difference. Essie is darker but in daylight they look very similar:



Comparing the swatches side by side, it's hard to tell a clear difference and quite honestly if I were to go to work with one hand Chanel, one hand Essie, no one is going to say anything:



Flash version:



To me Essie looks more like a chocolate brown while Chanel is a more taupe brown.

I asked the boyfriend which one he liked better (without knowing which was which) and he picked the Chanel. Nice choice :-)

OPI Catch Me In Your Net

My next polish choice from the OPI Summer Flutter collection is Catch Me In Your Net:



It looks like a cross between OPI Absolutley Alice and Sephora by OPI Mermaid To Order or perhaps Teal We Meet Again.



This polish is LOVE. It has tiny light blue/teal flecks of microscopic glitters = gorgeousness. I was very distracted at work today because every now and then I'd be typing and look down and be all 'ooooh pretty @_@'



With flash and still pretty. I think the camera has picked up the tealness of it but I would say it's more green teal than blue. Depends on the light. Daylight shot:



Excuse the messy nails. This was two coats of polish with Seche Vite topcoat. I absolutely love this nail polish and although I haven't swatched the other two colours (yet!), this to me is the stand out of the collection. Unique and very very pretty. Matched my teal sweater today :-)

Oh and before I forget, my bf got me some pretty tulips for my birthday:



It's nice to bring a bit of colour into this horrible cold wet weather we're having this week. I was walking home today and I swear ice shards were hitting me in the face, not rain. That's how cold and windy it was.

OPI Flower To Flower and happy birthday to me!

It was my birthday yesterday so I decided to do some pink party nails. I discovered the OPI Summer Flutter collection in the USA while I was on vacation and picked up all four (and how can you resist when they're under 10USD, I still can't believe we pay 20 dollars here in Australia). I decided to wear Flower to Flower:



Absolutely gorgeous colour and with two coats, looks beautiful:



After wearing various other nail polish brands then apply OPI, you remember why you pay so much money. The formula is so nice to apply and you don't have to fight with it. Here's the non flash version:



That was taken on the morning of my birthday when there was *some* light. And if you're curious, the background does show my lovely birthday present from the bf - a gorgeous Tiffany heart pendant key:



I had already bought something for myself but the boyfriend saw my face when I spied this key. I have the heart pendant necklace so this will be a beautiful addition to my (small!) collection.

I spent the day with the bf because my family live in Queensland. We went shopping, had coffee and finally saw Eclipse in the Premium Dendy cinema. I love having food brought in during the movie! Awesome. I was a bit naughty with my shopping however:



Viktor & Rolf Flowerbomb. The lady was trying to convince me of their limited edition version (whether it really is or not I don't know) that was lighter, more summery but I didn't like it. Then I tried this one and I knew it was the one :-D So heavy though! I love the bottle and the perfume is actually pink. Gorgeous.



And these are just things that have been on my list for ages but haven't gotten around to purchasing. I do have Essie Mink Muffs and comparing the bottles they do look similar. I am eager to do comparative swatches with Chanel's Particuliere because they do look so similar bottle to bottle. But you never know until you get them on the nail ;-) And damn you tube for continuously raving about the Diorskin shimmer powder in Amber Diamond, do you know how expensive it is in Australia? I'm not even going to say. I should have picked it up when I saw it in Sephora for $44. No wait it was sold out. But I could have gotten it in Nordstrom ffs. Oh well :-P And when you buy Dior, YSL doesn't hurt as much. Oh what a justification.

Well I hope everyone is having a good winter. Mine is horribly cold I - am so looking forward to Spring, Floriade and quite frankly, the sun! Time to tuck into some York Pieces. Damn I can't *wait* for my next USA vacation :-D

A Haul of Mini Essies! And Hawaii Day 4 :-)

Don't you hate it when you can't decide on a nail polish from a collection? Why not get all I say :-P Well almost all, here we have the two mini sets from the Essie Summer and Essie Resort collections. I believe there's only two missing and that's from the summer collection. I feel I need them too :-P



I was on the lookout for these in Hawaii but sadly I couldn't find any new collection Essie, but I found a truckload of other Essie polishes! Nordstrom didn't stock them at Ala Moana (despite standing next to a seasonal Essie 4 pack set while asking them if they sold Essie...) So I perused online and purchased the minis of the Essie Summer and Essie Resort collections. I dislike working with mini brushes but they're not too bad to apply. The two that stick out to me are Knockout Pout and Haute as Hello but I decided to go with Knockout Pout first:



That's two coats. It's quite glossy because of the Seche Vite topcoat but really it was quite matte without. I'd give you a non flash photo but let's be honest, Canberra won't be showing the sun again until October :-P Haha kidding. The sun goes down just after 4pm and I'm still at work so no daylight swatches for me :-( But knockout pout is gorgeous! So bright, so girly. I feel the need for a full sized bottle... hmmm.

Here's a short clip for Hawaii Day 4. We went snorkeling and I haven't touched the underwater camera videos so this video is basically a shopping trip :-P Victoria Secret is nice but crazy hectic.

Lush Lip Scrubs and Hawaii Day 3!

Australian Lush stores finally got the Lush Lip Scrubs and I have no idea why it's taken so long to get these, I have been waiting for ages! It was actually on my Hawaii shopping list and then they go and release them in Australia just before I leave! I waited until I got back but I only managed to get 2 out of the 3 lip scrubs in my local store - they were sold out of the bubblegum flavour (it's meant to smell like snow fairy). And that was the one I was really after! :-( I think you can still get it online though.



I got Mint Julips and Sweet Lips. As the name suggests Mint Julips is very minty very fresh and I keep that at my desk for my daily sugarush ahem I mean lip ex-foliation. The other, sweet lips I keep next to my bed which probably isn't a good idea with all the sugar (ingredients are caster sugar and various flavour oils).



The vanilla is supposed 'lock in moisture' but jury is still out on this one, I do feel the need to put on some By Terry Baume de Rose afterwards to keep my lips ultra moisturised. I have become super addicted to these lip scrubs though, but I think it's just for the sugarush :-P Cute idea though. I still want Bubblegum! They retail for 9.95AUD.

Here's some more pictures from my trip. We stayed at the Royal Hawaiian in Waikiki, beautiful hotel built in 1927. We took so many photos of the building itself, it was absolutely stunning.



We had breakfast at the Surf Lanai with a gorgeous view of Waikiki beach and Diamond Head in the background:



And of course since this *is* a makeup blog primarily, here's Sephora at the Ala Moana shopping center! I went here several times of course and I really wanted to go back on my last day but didn't get time :-( I wish they shipped internationally!



And if you're interested, here's day 3 of my Hawaii trip. Consists primarily of the Honolulu Zoo and my new found love, Yoghurtland :-D

Product Review: Kevin Murphy Angel Rinse

A while back I reviewed the Kevin Murphy Body Guard styling lotion, and I said that I wanted to try the daily shampoo/conditioner. Well I'm on my second round of blonde foils and I've really been noticing how damaged my hair is. I have been using the John Frieda Sheer Blonde shampoo and conditioner for several months, but honestly, it leaves my hair so dry. However I don't want to have nasty orange/brassy hair so I decided that I didn't really need to use the conditioner as well. Instead I started pairing the Sheer Blonde shampoo with the Kevin Murphy Angel Rinse. And I LOVE it.



The angel range is specifically for fine coloured hair and it leaves my hair so soft. I noticed the difference straight away. The directions say to leave it in for 1-2 minutes then rinse. The only thing I can say is that it's heavily scented but I have a big sensitive nose and it doesn't bother me. But I feel the need to note it as it may not appeal to all. Have a whiff if your local salon stocks it :-) The ingredients list a whole bunch of fruity citrus oils so that's probably what I'm smelling.

Angel Rinse is available from Adorebeauty. Or eBay if you're lucky. There's not a *lot* on there but I've bought on ebay before and sometimes it can be cheaper.